We Missed Newcastle

Manchester United 3 - Newcastle 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Berbatov (32), Fletcher (41), Giggs (85)

Team: Van der Sar, Vidic, Evans, O'Shea, Evra (Rafael 87), Fletcher, Scholes, Nani (Giggs 70), Valencia, Berbatov, Rooney (Hernandez 62)

Glad to have Newcastle back in the Premiership. We sorely missed this hopeless bunch. Could have been a different story last season had we had this sorry group to play against. Well, it's a new season and new aspirations to aim for. And for once we didn't fuck up the opener.

Nothing much to say about this game. We controlled practically every aspect of the game right from the kickoff till the final whistle. Barring a couple of scares, none of which looked really threatening, it was as comfortable as it could get. At times, our biggest enemy on the pitch were ourselves. We spent too much time passing the ball around instead of breaking Newcastle down. For brief moments in the game in the second half, it almost looked as if we were too bored being 2-0 up and decided to murk around trying to add some spice for the capacity crowd. But Newcastle were not buying into it. They stuck to being hopeless and boring. Someone else with more adventure would have made thing more interesting.

Just a couple of things to add:

- Berbatov looks very much like finally justifying that ridiculous transfer fee. He had a pretty good game and probably should have been more selfish, but after scoring the opener, he was trying to set everyone up. Get the feeling this could finally be the year Berbatov sets the stage alight. From the goal celebrations last week and tonight, you could tell that the entire team is rooting for him too.

- Rooney seems out of sorts. Really not at his sharpest. I'm just worried that a poor World Cup campaign could have played into his psyche. Let's hope he snaps out of his funk soon.

- Evra started today, which was pretty incredible. Having been out the entire pre-season, Fergie opted to start him. Didn't do too badly, but didn't light up the stage either. I'm just surprised he got picked to start after a no-show at pre-season.

- What can you say about that man Scholes? Best player on the pitch by a wide wide margin. His tackling is still his achilles heel, but his passing is out of this world. I was surprised and yet glad that Fergie played him the full 90 mins. You would expect that at 2-0 up, you'd be resting those old legs as much as possible. Nevertheless, another great great performance by Scholes.